Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Data order in tables
  3. Hierarchy and grouping
  4. Column spacing
  5. Fonts
  6. Bold text in tables
  7. Number alignment
  8. Number rounding
  9. Effective rounding
  10. Totals
  11. Measures
  12. Shading, gridlines and other lines
  13. Units
  14. Captions, titles and subtitles
  15. Annotations
  16. Source

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Number rounding

Always use a consistent level of precision, but use the lowest level possible for the intended user.

For the “inquiring citizen”, that is, a broader, less statistical audience :

260,000

For the “information forager”, for example, a local politician making decisions about future council tax charges:

264,300

For the “expert analyst”, for example, in a statistical journal discussing the detailed methodology behind the estimation, or in a situation where reproducibility is important:

264,337